G'day to All, we are on the road again with Mt Isa as our destination. We left home during a period of higher than normal rainfall not knowing if we could get through on the rain affected highways. We arrived at Barcaldine two days later, this is speedy, long distance travelling for us, having stopped over at Duaringa the first night. Each evening is ushered in with a brief tropical like storm, but here it is thunder and lightning with no rain. There are few travellers on the road at present, maybe they have been put off with the reports of flooded rivers and towns that fill all the news broadcasts. But we did meet a couple in a motorhome at Duaringa, we will remember them because they had an eight week old lorikeet that that they had reared from a very early age after it had fallen from it's nest. The lorikeet happily thought of them as mum and dad. The next day we travelled on towards Barcaldine passing through Emerald where the Nogoa River was running a banker, putting the camp site of our previous visit under about 3 metres of water. Our first night in 'Barcy' we camped at the Rest Area 2km east of town. It was quiet beside the highway as there were no heavy transports, the highway is closed to vehicles over 5 tonne. We were not held up with water over the road but we could see where the road had been cut and left the surface badly damaged in many places. The worst of these places was at Comet, signage indicated that we might have delays of up to 30 minutes but we got through after waiting only about 10 minutes. Our second night at 'Barcy' we moved to the showgrounds, the amenities there are quite good and it is an easy walk into town. We met Tony from Aramac while having morning tea in town and talked for about 3 hours, we had a late lunch that day.
The only two camps in the extensive Rest Area at Duaringa. The motorhome in the background is the home of the hand reared lorikeet chick. Our new vehicle is proving very able at towing the Cruiseliner, much more steady and comfortable than was the Forester.
The main street of Alpha, we stopped here for lunch and bought some goodies from the bakery. This must be the cheapest bakery in Australia and we can recommend the apple turnovers. We called into this bakery following the recommendation of Graeme, a fellow traveller that we met along the way.
The Barcaldine Rest Area, complete with electric BBQ. The only problem is because the area is so wet the site is over-run with midgies.
Sunset at the Rest Area under the build up to the evening storm.
This sculpture in the road side gardens at Barcaldine is also a musical instrument.
The Tree of Knowledge at Barcaldine with two of the six pubs in the back ground.
This wind mill with a 9 metre fan pumps water from the Artesian Basin to feed the adjoining water feature. The entire town gains it's water supply from the Artesian Basin and has been since the late 1800's.
This shot was taken near Ilfracombe, on our way to Longreach. Under more stormy skies, you can see how green and lush the country side is. We have not passed any areas that are dry, it is like this the whole distance.
